A box just landed on my doorstep, and as the UPS man drove away, I opened it up to find a device that gets rid of germs on cell phones using some sort of UV light. Why would a marketing department send me that? Because inside was a USB drive containing the first trailer for Contagion – the forthcoming viral outbreak thriller from Steven Soderbergh. What better way to kick everything off? Plus, the trailer is gripping. Matt Damon brings the intensity, Laurence Fishburne brings the expertise, the rest of the cast (including Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law) bring anxiety, but behind every single performance is a major element of fear. Holy hell, this looks great:

Would you vote for Matt Damon for Congress? The people of fake New York sure seem to be ready to do so, as long as his toothy-grin politician character in The Adjustment Bureau can keep his pants on… and with Emily Blunt running around in high heels, that’s not an easy task. But something tells us that a mysterious force might keep him in check to make that happen. One of this spring’s speculative fiction films comes to DVD and Blu-ray, based on a story by Phillip K. Dick, and we give it a $1000-a-plate treatment with our latest drinking game.

Few modern war movies exemplify the courage of a fighting force quite like Saving Private Ryan. Steven Spielberg deftly drew out performances from a varied cast of veterans and newcomers, and he even had a few tricks up his sleeve. For one, all of the actors went through military training except for Matt Damon so the cast would be bitter toward him. A more technical trick was attached drills to the sides of the cameras in order to make them shake the way he wanted them to. It wasn’t until they started shooting that Spielberg was informed that there were lenses that would create the effect (and that he didn’t invent some crazy new technology).

If you were hoping for a trailer that created a mass of internal conflict, how about animated penguin babies singing about bringing sexy back? Would that do it for you? If not, you’ve probably already got some serious internal conflict. Happy Feet Two bursts onto the scene with some rap, some dance pop, and an elephant-nosed seal that looks like a real-life Snuffaluffagus got converted to CGI. Heartwarming or truly, deeply terrifying? You be the judge:

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s waiting to watch the latest episode of Community because it promised its girlfriend it would. And that’s really hard to do, because that show’s really good. Also, Josh Holloway from Lost guest stars in the two-part season finale. How can that be resisted by the world’s most interesting nightly movie news linkdump? Must… hold… on… Must… do… the news… Quentin Tarantino went big when he cast Brad Pitt as his lead in Inglorious Basterds. So to see him considering Will Smith as the titular character, a freed slave trained by a German bounty hunter that sets out on a quest to save his wife from a head slave, is an act of pure bravado — he’ll just go get anyone he effing pleases to star in his movies, won’t he? And if that wasn’t enough to blow your mind, consider this: Christoph Waltz is said to be circling the role of the German trainer, with Samuel L. Jackson in consideration as the bad guy. That’s potentially a perfect storm of awesome, so we’ll see.

Well, Jeremy Renner is almost Jason Bourne in that he’s been offered the role as Matt Damon’s replacement. He’s also almost Jason Bourne because he’ll be playing a new character in the same Bourne-verse. Of course, Jason Bourne isn’t even Jason Bourne so it all evens out. According to Deadline Barrelsvile, the two-time Academy Award nominee who defused bombs in The Hurt Locker has been offered the starring role of a Bourne spin-off directed by Tony Gilroy. Now, it’s a matter of him accepting it or turning it down. This, of course, couldn’t make more sense if it had a gun to our foreheads. Renner is set up as an action star that brings acting talent and an intensity cocaine addicts only wish they had to the table. But there’s still a chance he might pass on the role. Why? For one, a packed work schedule. Both The Bourne Legacy and Avengers are slated for 2012, so they’ll have to make it work. Renner also has Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol coming out later this year as well as Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters filming right now for a 2012 release. For two, it’s a question as to whether Renner would be able to/want to take over as the point man for both the Mission: Impossible and Bourne franchises. That’s a lot of spy work for one man. His star is rising, of course, and while he’d be brilliant in this, the choice also almost seems myopic – as if there

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr gets an added dose of tiger’s blood and Adonis DNA to make it through all the movie-watching he endures. He bats about .500 in his screenings, really liking some but struggling through others. After a visit to the wild west of Rango, he finds his fate adjusted by a mysterious fleet of men with stylish hats. Then, he realizes how ugly Number Four really is before staying out all night, drinking with Topher Grace and Teresa Palmer… who looks a lot like Number Six.

The Adjustment Bureau, loosely adapted from a Philip K. Dick story, takes on one of science fiction’s stock themes. Fans of Lost, for example, or Minority Report or The Matrix will recognize the classic struggle between fate and free will at the heart of the picture, the clash between the universe’s plan for us and our desire to carve out our own destiny. It’s familiar, quasi-religious territory rendered with stylish flair by writer-director George Nolfi and cinematographer John Toll. Set in a Manhattan rife with dapper henchmen in fedoras and swanky buildings with long marble foyers, captured in sweeping camera movements and symmetrical compositions, the film has the look of a production of weighty, spiritual import. Yet that stylistic edge services a love story that starts flat and never gets going. It’s a forced and altogether empty conjoining of two moderately likable, exceedingly bland individuals that inspires none of the deep, transcendent passion required of a narrative so immersed in spirituality.

George Nolfi‘s directorial debut, The Adjustment Bureau, isn’t exactly extreme sci-fi. While that may disappoint the Phillip K. Dick faithful followers, it’ll most likely be the key element that swoons over those looking for a love story. That’s what The Adjustment Bureau is first and foremost: a love story set in the real world. Besides the main protagonists who are, of course, The Adjustment Bureau, everything is fairly rooted in reality. The bureau represents the only true sci-fi element of the film. Like most interesting science-fiction, their presence is to raise questions about fate and free will. What they do is set up as more of a grey area plan rather than a villainous world-dominating scheme, which is something that seemed important to Nolfi. Some of the bureau members are charming and even likable, especially John Slattery‘s Richardson. Here’s what writer-director George Nolfi had to say about reality, avoiding cheesiness, style, the charms of John Slattery and his constant use in the film of, “Son of a bitch.”

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

It’s always difficult to figure out how a studio will factor into the filmmaking process, but considering how well the partnership between Sony and Neill Blomkamp for District 9 turned out, this seems like a match made in Joburg. According to Deadline Rustenburg, Sony will distribute Blomkamp’s forthcoming film Elysium – starring Matth Damon and Jodie Foster – to the entire planet. It’s a huge science- fiction endeavor that just recently got Blade Runner and Tron effects legend Syd Mead to sign on as well. The production is shooting for a late 2012 release. On top of that, Media Rights Capital has worked out a deal with Blomkamp for another movie, called Cappie (an original script), which will begin pre-production as soon as he’s done with Elysium. We’ll be keeping an eye out for plot details on it as they come out. Busy, busy, busy. Just the way fans like it. Sadly, the collateral damage here is that District 10 may never exist or it might be until 2014 before we get a chance to see it.

As we all know, Elysium was the section of the underworld reserved for the heroes and ethically near-perfect. What that has to do with Neill Blomkamp’s latest science fiction outing, Elysium, is anyone’s guess, but now the film has 100% more Jodie Foster in it. She’ll be working alongside Blomkamp’s go-to for District 9 Sharlto Copley and Matt Damon (how dya like them apples?). Plus, Blomkamp has described the film before as being “very violent” which is something to look forward to. Hopefully no one steals Foster’s child and makes her angry. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry. [Deadline Muncy]

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr dresses up in a big red suit and sneaks into people’s houses. The only difference is that he sneaks into the houses of all the naughty girls. But before he can manage that undertaking, he sets his sights on the last wash of movies hitting the multiplexes this season. He travels with Jack Black to the Bermuda Triangle in Gulliver’s Travels then heads out west to catch a killer with True Grit. Finally, he brings his Christmas movie watching to a close by stabbing himself in the face with Little Fockers. Ho ho ho, the humanity!

There’s a core lesson somewhere inside the remake (or novel re-adaptation) of True Grit about pulling on bootstraps, feeling the bitter cold of the ride, and doing what needs to be done. Of course, that lesson is buried beneath a lot of snide remarks and funny moments. Even if the lesson is hard to find, the film itself is a reminder that there are few things quite as entertaining as seeing a snotty little girl and an eye-patched drunkard go exact a little buck shot revenge. Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is desperate to track down the man who killed her father, so she enlists the reluctant help of sodden U.S. Marshal Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) who takes every opportunity to brag about himself. Through a tough ride in Indian Territory, Mattie comes gun barrel to gun barrel with murderer Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) with a chance to pull the trigger and right his wrong.

We don’t make a habit of covering unofficial casting announcements because they invariably end up changing shortly thereafter, but we make exceptions when the talent involved make us tingle. Such is the case with this latest bit of news involving Matt Damon and District 9 director, Neill Blomkamp. Deadline Pogo is reporting that Damon is in negotiations to star in Blomkamp’s upcoming film Elysium. Sharlto Copley has previously been announced to star in the science fiction film that has so far seen plot details kept under wraps. Copley of course starred in Blomkamp’s surprise hit debut as well as The A-Team. If it happens this would only be Damon’s second foray into live action science fiction. This March sees the release of The Adjustment Bureau co-starring Emily Blunt. The film is based on a Philip K. Dick story, and while it’s been delayed already more than once it remains one we’re very much looking forward to. Here’s hoping these two talents can converge to make something even more exciting and thought provoking than District 9.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr puts on his ghostbusting gear to take on the two big spiritual flicks in the theaters. He suffers through a tsunami in Hereafter and struggles even more to get through Clint Eastwood’s latest Oscar-bait flick. Then he sets up a stationary video camera to capture any strange goings-on while he sleeps. He plans to sell the film to Paramount as Paranormal Activity 3: More Shots of Nothing Happening.

The sort of movie for which the critical cliché “tone poem” was invented, Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter evokes an eerie serenity in the face of death. With three interlocking storylines centered on our awareness, perceptions and ultimate acceptance of the afterlife, on what the notion that you start dying the moment you’re born really means, the picture ought to cast a particular, carefully controlled spell. Yet Eastwood, an adept handler of “meat-and-potatoes” narratives and more naked emotions, fails to transform the precise, melancholic sensibility at the heart of Peter Morgan’s screenplay into an affecting cinematic experience. Long-winded, ponderous and without much in the way of compelling drama, Hereafter sputters across three countries, filled with haunting imagery but never offering the visceral, subtle transcendence of a film by a more adept chronicler of spiritual sensations.

This news was probably inevitable, but like the romantic that I am I unfortunately held out hope just long enough for the truth to sting. The fourth film in the Jason Bourne series will be without its title character. Per Hollywood Elsewhere, writer/director Tony Gilroy is guiding The Bourne Legacy along a storyline that does not feature Jason Bourne and therefore does not need Matt Damon. This point is important because Damon had previously sworn off any interest in a fourth film if Paul Greengrass wasn’t sitting in the director’s chair. Greengrass directed parts two and three but supposedly came into conflict with Universal during the production of Green Zone and decided to call it quits in regard to the Bourne series. Gilroy, of course, has been associated with all three films in the role of co-writer, and it was recently announced that he’d be taking the reigns on part four. Gilroy says “This is not a reboot or a recast or a prequel. No one’s replacing Matt Damon. There will be a whole new hero, a whole new chapter…this is a stand-alone project.” To which I reply, why the hell does it need to be part of the Bourne series?

Probably not, seems to be the consensus around bloggywood today. Over at /Film, Russ Fischer outlines the tenuous relationship that has developed between Bourne franchise forefathers Tony Gilroy and Paul Greengrass. In short, Gilroy didn’t like what Greengrass did with his script on The Bourne Ultimatum to the extent that it doesn’t sound like a fourth movie would include them both. And now that news is breaking that Universal is leaning toward Gilroy (who recently delivered Michael Clayton and Duplicity to much success), it’s safe to assume that Paul Greengrass is out for round four. Which means that star Matt Damon would be out, as he’s expressed interest in working on the project only if Greengrass comes back. So there’s where the whole thing stands, caught in quite a kerfuffle. Will Damon return? Will Gilroy restart the series with another actor? If so, then with who? The new title is The Bourne Legacy, so it could very well make sense for a little reboot. All of these questions remain. Either way, as long as Gilroy holds the camera still from time to time, I’ll watch whatever he puts together. [Deadline]

There’s a gun slingin’, Johnny Cash song usin’, eye patch wearin’ new trailer for True Grit out today, and it looks like the Coen’s have crafted another beautiful lookin’ film. We’ll have to wait to see the film to judge it on its own merits (and not just two minutes of clips), but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Plus, check out the 2:11 mark for a guest appearance by Mary Poppins.